


tooth and claw

by boo98 (butter)



Series: lean on me [2]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, Modern Fantasy AU, Mostly Gen, Pack Dynamics, Pre-Slash, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 07:26:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9112651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/butter/pseuds/boo98
Summary: Joshua may be human but he's pretty sure he's more competent with this whole pack thing than any of the wolves in his group.





	

**Author's Note:**

> My first Seventeen fic and this is mostly a precursor to what I'm hoping will be a longer, more Verkwan-focused story in the future. I just wanted to hammer down this AU a bit more and get a feel for writing these guys, but I hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Disclaimer: there's discussion of a/b/o dynamics but it's only in a pack-dynamics context, not in any sexual way.

It’s nearing four in the morning when Joshua feels cold air seep under his comforter and a warm body huddle up against his back. He shifts sleepily over to see who it is and lets out a soft huff of laughter before moving an arm to pull Seungcheol closer. He immediately dips down to tuck his face in against Joshua’s neck, making a happy noise no doubt at the warmth under the covers. “Is it still snowing out?”, Joshua whispers, petting Seungcheol’s hair and noting the slight dampness at the tips. “It’s late to be getting back from the studio, we didn’t even have practice tonight.”

Seungcheol grumbles and tightens his arm around Joshua’s waist. “Had to run through the unit performance a few times, Mingyu keeps tripping over himself.” He lowers his voice when someone in the next bunk over rustles in their sleep. “Plus, Hansol’s twitchy as hell right now, and being around all the wolves isn’t helping.”

Joshua hums, interested. “It’s going to be soon, right? He’s been weird for weeks now, at least since the last full moon. How old were you when you presented?”

“Younger than this, maybe 17? Before you moved here, anyways. The CEO was over the moon about it too, everyone wants an omega as the oldest in the group.” He burrows a little deeper into the covers, elbowing Joshua slightly when he does. “Hansol’s freaked about it though, and the dynamics manager doesn’t know what do to with him.”

“Well he’s half American grey wolf, who knows how that’ll change his symptoms. He’s been more toothy than usual lately, isn’t that something?”

“I dunno, I basically had to use a teething ring right before I presented but it could be anything. It’ll be fine either way, he’s young enough that Jeonghan and I can figure out any dynamics imbalance, and if he ends up beta then he’ll fit right in.” Seungcheol lets out a low sigh. “Wake up’s at 7, right?”

“Mmhm,” Joshua lets his eyes shut and feels Seungcheol’s eyelashes flutter against his neck when he does the same. “Good night.”

“Good night hyung, please shut up now,” a voice grunts from the bunk above them – Chan, tired and grumbly from the too-early wake up - and Joshua snorts before settling back in to sleep.

The extra heat that Seungcheol adds to the bed should be too much but instead it acts as a comforting barrier between him and the rest of the room, a wall to one side and a wolf to the other. Joshua waits, listening to the other boy’s breath even out before lowering to growly, deep breaths just bordering on snores. It still takes it out of Seungcheol, he knows, having to act as the de facto caretaker for the rest of them. The company may love the convenience of having a leader, eldest, and pack omega all rolled into one neat package, but it leaves Seungcheol shaky and out of balance at the end of long days. He’s too proud in his leadership to turn to any of the kids for support, and goodness knows he would die before even suggesting that Jeonghan settle him. In the end, it leaves Joshua more often than not with a wolf crowding into his space.

They only have five wolves in the bunch of them, which is actually a small ratio for how large their group is. Other idol groups, at least any that have over seven members, tend to be majority-wolf if they have any at all. Companies favor having the semblance of order that pack dynamics bring to a group, creating structure within what could be a chaotic number of people all forced into one small space and working together constantly. As a human Joshua can’t always understand the specifics of dynamic etiquette – all he knows is the bits he picked up from workshops during his trainee days that all the non-wolves had to attend, but most of that had just boiled down to ‘no poking the wolves during that time of the month’.

After watching Seungcheol and Jeonghan sort themselves out during the time before their debut he figured he’d gotten the basics down, though. As the leader and an omega, Seungcheol had had to take up sort of duel caretaker and disciplinarian roles. Omegas were traditionally caretakers anyways, working as the emotional heart of packs, which included keeping the younger kids in line. Although the effect was stronger for the other wolves, even the humans had become gradually attuned to the way Seungcheol used light words and quick shoulder squeezes to get his point across. Jeonghan, on the other hand, announced his nature in the sprawl of his arms around member’s shoulders and his casual possessiveness of all of them. He’d presented late in their training, and had managed the gradual shift from quiet to self-assured with all the ease of royalty.

Too-often caught in the middle of the two, Joshua ended up a third party to everything, from their bickering over group relationships to the way that they gingerly poked compliments towards each other as if trying to feed a hungry bear without getting their fingertips snapped off. Really, he thinks, as he settles into Seungcheol’s side and finally lets himself drift back asleep, he should know how to fix alpha-omega relationships. They were in basically every sports anime he had ever watched; he should be a pro at this point.

\--

The energy in their waiting room during a comeback is always riotous, now made worse by the nearing full moon and the unstable shifting of their second youngest. Joshua has Hansol tucked neatly against his side, where they share one of the manager’s phones, watching one of their stages last week to double check choreo before the dry rehearsal. Or at least they should be, but Hansol’s leg is jiggling so quickly that the screen isn’t nearly stable enough to watch anything off of. Joshua shoots him a look, but he’s too busy nervously looking around the room in short bursts of energy. “Are you going to be able to stay still long enough for them to get a mic on you?” he murmurs in English, and Hansol stills quickly, almost sheepishly.

“They took me off the shift suppressants,” he admits, now just tapping his fingers against his leg. “Just for now, they say the hormones might mess with me presenting normally, but now the moon is really getting to me. Hyung,” he whines, switching into Korean, “it’s awful, my teeth are killing me and I feel like I’m gonna pop claws in the middle of filming.”

Obviously noticing the small break down happening in their corner of the room, Seungkwan slides onto the couch on the other side of Hansol and slings an arm around his shoulder, with Hansol slumping over slightly to allow it. “Vernonnie,” he whines, tilting his head to lean against Hansol’s shoulder, “perk up a bit, you have the makeup noonas freaking out over your dark circles.” Joshua shoots him a warning look but Seungkwan ignores it and taps on Hansol’s knee with his other hand. “Do you need any of the calming tea my mom sent over last month? It’s seriously the best, I can make you some when we get back to the dorm. You know Jeju charms are the only way to go.”

Instead of nipping back a sharp response, which would have been expected with how testy he had been lately, the stiffness in Hansol’s shoulders seems to seep out just a bit. “That stuff always smells awful, Seungkwan, I don’t think I could take it,” and he laughs tiredly at the pout that’s immediately directed his way. “This whole thing should be over soon, anyways, and then you might need to give Jeonghan hyung some of that tea. I feel like he’s gonna freak when all the attention is on someone else’s dynamic for once.”

Across the room, by the makeup counter, Joshua sees Jeonghan straighten up a bit and shoot a look over at them, clearly having heard his name. Joshua gives him what he hopes comes across as a stern look but Jeonghan just smirks and settles back into his chair again, and even though he turns his eyes back to the makeup artist carefully touching up his eye makeup Joshua knows his ear is still cocked towards them. Seungkwan has managed to coax Hansol into holding his hand, which Joshua genuinely admires – Hansol hadn’t been kidding earlier about popping his claws, he’d been doing it sporadically the past few days. He leaves the two to their conversation, which seems to consist mostly of Seungkwan spouting off a list of reasons why this was AOA’s best comeback ever and wasn’t their dance so cute.

“Have you been freaking Hansol out?” he murmurs when he gets close enough to Jeonghan that he knows the other boy will hear him. Joshua sits in the stool the makeup noona had abandoned and hooks his feet onto the rungs of Jeonghan’s chair as Jeonghan turns to face him with a wry smile. “I thought he was going to shake out of his seat just now, and he chewed straight through the strings on his hoodie in the car on the way here.”

“Why would that be my fault? He’s presenting, it’s a very confusing time,” Jeonghan replies smoothly, cocking an eyebrow at him even though he knows that Joshua can see straight through that at this point. “He’s gonna end up beta, you know. Seungcheol’s worrying himself out over nothing, it’ll be fine.”

“You’ve noticed Seungcheol worrying, then?” Joshua shoots back, crossing his arms and lowering his voice into a whisper. “Have you said anything to him at all?”

“I told him to stop, duh. Anyways, you know I can’t settle that guy, he’s too in his own head about everything.” Jeonghan turns to the mirror to smooth his hair behind his ear, changing the subject with a “d’you think this length is getting weird, should I have them trim it at the salon tomorrow?”. Joshua notices his evasion, of course he notices, but he just leans in to tease Jeonghan about a breakout on his chin that sends him scrambling for the makeup artist who had finally sat down to her lunch. Any more dynamics talk and Jeonghan would have shut down, he knows. A topic for later, then.

\--

Things come to a head a few days later, and really Joshua should have known it was coming to this. After their conversation Jeonghan had been testy, half the time keeping Chan or Seungkwan tucked under an arm and half the time sitting with his knees up refusing to talk to anybody. Seungcheol, on the other hand, seemed to ramp up the level of attention he gave everyone, and had been coming to the dorm later and later each night. As the only beta wolves, Wonwoo and Mingyu had taken to sitting closer to Seungcheol than necessary, leaning into his sides and casting worried looks at each other over his head. Joshua was honestly sick of all of it, and Hansol shredding the sweater he had borrowed from him when he popped claws during a radio schedule did nothing to help his mood.

“I’m really sorry Josh,” Hansol whines lowly at him, clutching the sweater like a lifeline. “I really didn’t mean to, I just couldn’t help it, they kept making fun of me presenting and I’m already stressed enough, you know the fans won’t leave me alone about it since they took me off the suppressants. I swear a few tried to scent me when we were leaving the recording today, it’s just getting to my head.” He ducks his head in a manner that Joshua’s instantly familiar with, having seen it on most of the wolves whenever they faced Seungcheol’s quiet method of scolding.

Joshua sighs, reaching up to squeeze Hansol’s shoulder and takes the sweater. “It’s fine, I know this is all weird for you. Hey,” he suggests, lowering his eyes to shake the sweater out of the ball Hansol had bundled it into, “would you go check on Seungkwan? He’s been in our room for an hour now calling his mom, just see if he needs anything.” His eyes are down but he still sees the way the tension sinks out of Hansol’s shoulders as he nods and half-jogs off.

“You’re pretty good at that,” he hears from over the shoulder, and the only thing that keeps him from jumping is knowing that it would give away just how on edge he’s feeling. He turns to see Seungcheol behind him, hands in the pocket of his sweatshirt and bruise-dark circles under his eyes, which are in turn half-hidden under the lid of his baseball hat. “Sorry, it’s probably my fault he’s so freaked, I haven’t been able to get much time with him. He just keeps jumping from person to person so he’s hard to settle.”

Joshua doesn’t show anger easily, especially within the group. He’s the gentle one, the one that acts crazy sometimes but ultimately bends easily to the other’s strong personalities. Right now, though, he feels as if Seungcheol should be smoking lightly from the strength of his glare alone. “Come here,” he hisses, grabbing Seungcheol by the sleeve and yanking him, causing him to almost slip on the floor of their dorm in his sock feet. He pulls him into the bathroom they all share, which is as always a mess of toiletries and slightly damp near the sink and shower. He shuts the door before turning to face Seungcheol again, who at this point looks as if he’s fully expecting to get murdered.

“You’re wearing yourself out,” he begins, watching Seungcheol’s shoulders slump as he realized what Joshua’s about to say. “You can’t expect to take care of all twelve of us, it’s impossible. You need to sleep sometime too,” he adds, leaning against the opposite wall. “And considering you’ve been in my bed six times this last week I know exactly how much sleep you’ve been getting. Is it a dynamics thing with Hansol? You know I can help as much as you want me to, it’s fine, whatever you need- “

“It’s not just that.” Seungcheol rubs his eyes and half-sits on the edge of the sink counter. “I mean, yeah, that’s a big part of it, but – I don’t know. I’m trying my best, Shua,” and Joshua stiffens at the nickname, “but things just feel like they keep going wrong. Chan’s being moody lately for some reason, and Minghao’s homesick, and Jeonghan’s just been a dick. I don’t- “ his voice cracks and Joshua feels his stomach drop, “I don’t know what to do and it’s just making things worse.”

“You need to talk to Jeonghan, first of all.” Joshua kicks Seungcheol’s shin lightly when he just crosses his arms and looks to the side. “Don’t do that, you know I’m right. You both have been doing this wrong. He’s supposed to be a part of this, right? And he hasn’t been, not really. And yeah, that’s partly him being lazy and not wanting to be all emotional with you guys, but you also haven’t asked him to be, have you?” He watches Seungcheol’s mouth twist bitterly to the side, as if he’s swallowed a lemon. “You know his personality, he won’t approach you if you don’t approach him first. Sure, it’s embarrassing to need grounding, but you two need to fix yourselves if you want to expect the rest of everything to work out. You guys are the only wolves I really know, but even I can tell you that if the two leaders of the pack aren’t in sync then the rest is just gonna be chaos. Right?”.

Seungcheol stands silently for a long moment, chewing on his bottom lip with his head down so that his hat covers the rest of his face. Eventually he heaves out a sigh and sinks fully onto the countertop and picks at the ripped knees of his jeans. “I’m never gonna hear the end of it, you know,” he grumbles, and Joshua steps closer to pull up the brim of his hat lightly. “He’s gonna be so full of himself about it, how he’s such a good alpha and everything just went to shit without his help to steady the crazy omega.” Seungcheol looks up at him and pouts, an expression that’s out of practice on his features but charming nonetheless in the way that he always is, and Joshua lets out a soft laugh. “You’re the worst, Shua.”

“You love me,” he teases, and feels himself relax when Seungcheol laughs back at him. “Now pull yourself together, the kids probably think we’re doing something weird in here.”

\--

Three nights later, Joshua’s just managed to slip away from the members in their living room, who are all gathered on the floor in front of their TV watching some variety show. They’d had a morning schedule and then fairly easy dance practice in the afternoon, so the rare free evening had brought everyone’s spirits up a bit. By the time it hit just after midnight, though, he’d already been drowsy, and finally pried himself away from a clingy Seungkwan to go to bed.

Not twenty minutes after he lies down, most of which he spends checking his phone and messaging a friend or two from home, the door to the room creaks open and feet pad across the floor. Before he can even think to wonder who it is the person flops down on top of him and Jeonghan whines loudly in his ear “Shuaaa, why are you in bed so early, it’s a free night.” Joshua snorts and puts his phone down next to his pillow and lets himself be manhandled closer to the wall, allowing Jeonghan more room. “So boring in your old age.”

“Speak for yourself,” Joshua shoves him lightly in the chest and grins. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?”

Jeonghan rolls his eyes and burrows his face in the pillow, making it obvious when he breathes in the scent just because he likes to be showy with his wolf sometimes. “Missed you, haven’t seen you at all lately.” He looks up, affronted, when Joshua snorts disbelievingly. “I’m serious, you brat, you’ve been avoiding me.”

“Have not,” he responds, tucking his hands up between their bodies. “You’ve just been too busy. Where do you keep running off to during free practices?” He watches, amazed, when Jeonghan reddens just enough that it’s noticeable, and refuses to meet his eyes. “Wait, but actually, what have you been doing? Are you- “.

He stops in the middle of his thought when the door opens again and a second pair of feet step cautiously around the piles of clothes on the floor and towards the bed. This situation is more familiar, and when Seungcheol ducks his head down underneath the top bunk to look at them Joshua can’t get a clear reading of the emotions that flicker across his face when he sees Jeonghan there. “Sup,” he mutters lowly. “Sorry, I- I’ll just see you in the morning,” and he’s moving to leave when Jeonghan shoots a hand out to grab his wrist. Joshua watches, feeling stunned and as if he’s too tired to process what’s happening, as the other two hold eye contact for what feels like forever but could only really be five seconds.

When they look away finally it’s so Jeonghan can heave out a long, completely affected sigh, and shove himself up to sit against Joshua’s pillow. “C’mere, fearless leader, we can make room,” he drawls and tucks Joshua even closer to his side. Joshua glances back to see Seungcheol grimace, just slightly, before casting a look back at the door and finally settling a knee onto the mattress.

“Move your ass over then,” he grumbles, and Jeonghan laughs brightly and shifts Joshua bodily so that he’s half sprawled over Jeonghan, and Seungcheol jerkily mirrors it on his opposite side. It’s possibly the weirdest thing Joshua’s ever seen when Seungcheol eventually huffs and lets the side of his face settle into the space where Jeonghan’s neck and shoulder meet. It’s not like they don’t usually show skinship with each other, the three of them, and intellectually Joshua knows wolves have different feelings about this kind of thing, but the back of his mind keeps replaying just how strange this situation is. Jeonghan has one arm around each of them, around Joshua’s waist and Seungcheol’s shoulders, and eventually Seungcheol lets his free arm settle high on Jeonghan’s stomach.

Joshua shifts up, relishing Jeonghan’s punched out groan of pain when he elbows him in the gut and looks at the two of them, suspicious. “You two… you figured it out, didn’t you?” He watches closely as Jeonghan looks steadily just past him and Seungcheol’s visible ear turns a bright red. “You fucking did. You asshole, you didn’t even tell me,” and he punches Seungcheol’s shoulder.

“It’s weird,” Seungcheol mutters, and the red has spread to the back of his neck. “It’s just dynamics shit, it’s not important.” 

“Oh, you’re welcome for getting you to calm down for once in your life,” Jeonghan snaps back, but there’s no bite to it.

“You’re both idiots,” Joshua says, and ignores Jeonghan’s retort in favor of settling in more fully against his side and reaching over to tug at Seungcheol’s hand. He closes his eyes and listens to the two of them mutter to each other, just unimportant things about tomorrow’s schedule and how dumb Jeonghan’s hair looks all messy and un-styled. Eventually, just like he knew it would, silence blooms over the three of them. The bed really should be too small for this sort of thing, he thinks to himself, tight between Jeonghan and the wall with Seungcheol eventually settling almost completely on top of Jeonghan. He’s warm, though, and Jeonghan traces lightly against his hip through the fabric of his t-shirt while Seungcheol allows their fingers to tangle together in the middle of the bed.

Over the past few years, he’s learned that the key to most of these wolf things is to not think too much about any of it, and just to let things happen. And sure, he knows that they still have Hansol to fret over and arguments to have in the practice room, but if they can fall back on the stability of Seungcheol’s shoulders under the weight of everyone’s expectations and the reliability of Jeonghan’s arms falling heavy around them, it’ll work out alright.


End file.
